Rocker Character

This is a character I did for an L.A. No Name T-shirt but they ended up going with Spike. Thought I'd share him cause I really like him. You can click on the image to make it bigger.

New T-Shirt Design

Hey hey everyone, My friend, Colin, has started a really cool t-shirt company out of L.A. called L.A. NO Name and I've been asked to come up with some characters to go exclusively on their shirts, so of course I said yes. And here is the first one, which features a creature I call Spike, playing the guitar with his feet (he doesn't seem to have any arms or hands). If you're interested, you can purchase the shirts HERE! And make sure to check out their other cool shirts in their SHOP.

Hungry Thirsty Hippo

Here's a new character I threw together, I really like him.

HotDog On A Stick Possum

Here's a possum I drew recently that reflects my obsession with the girls that work at Hotdog On A Stick and wear those amazing uniforms. You go girls!

Watch "Pets Who Look Like Their Owners"

This was a stand alone short that I did at Tertiary, and I really love this one. It's more a practice in character design and sculpture than it is in animation itself, and I feel it really stands out as a unique piece apart from my other work. Rob Broadhurst wrote a wonderful little song for it, that just helps give it that "off" feeling. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it!

WATCH "Pets Who Look Like Their Owners" Here!

Drawing

Hey guys, thought I'd share some quick drawings I do when I watch TV......

My Art Book Is Now Available

I've had a lot of people ask me lately if they could purchase the art book I put together last spring so I've finally decided to make it available for purchase on Blurb.com. It's a 40 page collection I put together of some of my favorite pieces and Blurb's printing is top notch. So, if any of you are interested in a weird collection of fine art, sketches, character designs, etc; CHECK IT OUT HERE!

Four Down, So Many More To Go......

I just completed my fourth short for my new Tertiary Animated series Furryvale. Assuming Fox & Calf does get released sometime in August, I think there's a chance this new series will be released later in the fall. We'll just have to see. See more images from this latest short at my Tertiary Blog!

Martha Stewarthog

Isn't she beautiful? My latest short deals with a wonderful caricature of Martha Stewart, it was fun trying to take such an ugly animal like the warthog and make her cute and pretty. You can see more on the production, along with her koala and hippo costars at my Tertiary Blog. See you around!

Animating New Series

Hey Everyone, so I've started animating my next clay-animated series for Tertiary Productions, which is yet to be officially titled (though I have an idea). With the premiere of Fox & Calf just about a month a way...I hope.....It has been fun to work with some different characters. You can see images from my first short, "Pigg Angel: Swine Freak," and more, at my Tertiary Production Blog!

New York: Falling Into Gravity With Ron Cole

I’ve been out in New York for the past couple of days, clearing my head and doing some early development and pre-viz for my next Tertiary Animation project. It’s been a great and much needed change of scene for my creative mind.



One of the highlights of my trip so far was getting to visit the Mysterious Ron Cole in his Long Island studio. In the last year or so, Ron Cole has risen out of obscurity to some sort of underground stop-motion animation god. All based on a 1 minute trailer for his upcoming short film “In The Fall Of Gravity” that he posted on the internet. The 12 minute short is a revolutionary experiment involving animatronic stop-motion. This new technology that Ron is developing could very well change the way stop-motion animation is done in the future, as well as improve the quality beyond cartoons.



When I got to his basement studio, I was EXTREMELY excited, as I have been a fan of his trailer since it first surfaced on the web almost a year ago. Nothing could prepare me for what I was going to see. We journeyed through the various set areas and he introduced me to Isomer and Trevor, the stars of the film. What blew me away was how giant these puppets were, I couldn’t believe it. Moving them around was a dream, they had wonderful ball and socket armatures, and then Ron started to play with their robotics, moving the mouths and eyebrows around, seeing them come to life was truly magical. The type of facial features and movements they make are like nothing I have ever seen in this industry.





The sets were beautiful, hand panted, leaves and vines crawling up the rails. I just wanted to touch it all. What surprised me was that all the backgrounds were hand painted and right there, no blue screen. The painstaking detail apparent in each one was mind-boggling.



The real treat, though, was getting to be the first person (other than the composer) to watch the finished “In The Fall Of Gravity” film. And let me tell you, all you stop-mo fans that have been salivating over his trailer for the last year; it is well worth the wait. The final film is stunningly beautiful, and I watched the entire time with my jaw on the floor. The trailer doesn’t show anything compared to what the film has in store for you. The animation is top notch; the visuals are beautiful and fun. I’m pretty sure the deep, philosophical story was compelling too, but I was so captivated by what I was watching, not much else got through. It is a sensory overload and demands multiple viewings to truly take it all in and get the full affect.



We spent the rest of the afternoon talking about animation and technology, I showed him my Fox & Calf shorts, and I got to know his really cool family. He shared with me how he did all the low-tech effects in the film and my head almost exploded. It’s funny that even I assume everybody does everything digitally. And his tricks were brilliant. So brilliant, in fact, that I feel as if giving them away on this blog would be the same as me telling you how his film ends. Hopefully he will do a “making-of” featurette on his DVD and give us all a glimpse at how his brilliant mind works, and still defies the computers.

I had an amazing experience with Ron and his family, and his puppets, and left feeling very inspired. How often does that happen? I cannot wait until everyone else can see what he’s done and feel the same!

Skank-mation, Pimp-mation

I've started pre-production on the fifth episode of Fox & Calf (most likely coming out in May!), This one takes place at a night club and is called "Rhonda," so I should be creating lots of fun, colorful characters for the short. Remember to check out all the updates at my Tertiary Productions Blog.

Back On Fox & Calf!

After a short hiatus, working on some other projects, I am back working on Fox & Calf. Be sure to catch all the new photos and updates over at my Tertiary Animation Blog, as I wind down production and get ready to put this series out!

Ryan's Political Caricatures

So this is pretty unrelated to the animation projects except that these caricatures stalled the Fox & Calf productions about a week or so. MOLI had me do the presidential primary candidates for their Election Center. I got 11 of them done and then some of the candidates started dropping out. Anyway, here's the link to see all 11 drawings I did, with little mini-commentaries under each. Glad to finally have these up, this was definitely a different project for me. I've never been good at caricatures, so I grew a lot doing this, and I'm glad I did.
CHECK OUT THE POLITICAL CARICATURES

FINISHED ANIMATING "THE WALK"!!!!!!!!

Hey Every One! It's been a month, but I finally finished animating "The Walk." It is probably one of the most visually interesting films I've ever done and is going to be REALLY fun and quirky. There are some great posts on the making of it over at my Tertiary Animation Production Blog, along with some fun pics, so make sure you go check them out.

New Stuff At Tertiary

Hey Hey! Life's been great for the ol' Poor Claymator. I finished animating "The Blind Date" and I've started pre-production on "The Walk," As well as working on some top-secret fun stuff. Anyway, make sure you catch all the new news at my new Tertiary Production Blog. See you all soon!

Character Sketches

Hey Everyone, I'm back, and since I obviously haven't done anything on the production the last three weeks, I figured I'd share some old character design sketches with you guys.Gonna be building sets this week and (cross your fingers) animate next week. Will hopefully have some fun stuff for you soon. Ciao!

Going Away For A While

Hey everyone! I have been keeping very busy lately, so much so that I haven't had the time or energy, so here's a bunch of new images for you all at once.
The gang. As you can see when I took this picture the giraffe didn't have spots on her right arm yet.
Christos Potamus gets new eyes. You can see a never-finished character behind him.
Here's a dead pigeon for the short, "The Walk."You can see he is VERY small.
Here's a waitress that seems to be a rat. Gross.
I'll be out of town for three weeks for my wedding, honeymoon and some other stuff so it may be a while until I post again. Until then, if you're craving some good claymation blogging, check out my buddies JRiggity and Pram Maven Films.
http://justinrasch.blogspot.com/
http://www.prammavenfilms.blogspot.com
They've got some really cool stuff goin' on. Okay, I'll miss you all and can't wait to get back to work on the project. CIAO!!!

A Pink Giraffe? What Kind Of Film Is This!?!?!?

Hippo Boss

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been so busy lately. Here's the fuller version of Christos Potamus, one of my newest and newly favorite characters. I appologize for the crappy photo and will try to take a better one that does the character more justice.
Works been good, though I have to admit that after spending the last 4 months in Cobb ripping through animation projects at warp speed, coming here to Florida and having to build a whole studio completley from scratch is slow and frustrating. I know that in the future I will be able to produce faster because of what we're doing here. But the animator in me is getting antsy and wants to see progress NOW. And leaving for 2.5 weeks for a wedding and honeymoon isn't going to make things faster. Oh well, Mainstream Holdings has a lot of really exciting plans for the future so I have to be patient and keep working hard, and eventually it will all pay off big time. Anyway, I will hopefully have a new in-progress character to share with you tomorrow or Tuesday. Ciao!